Former offices of YRM

Former Offices of YRM

A six-storey modernist office building of reinforced concrete frame with white ceramic tile cladding, designed by the architects YRM and completed in the mid-twentieth century. The building occupies a small plot enclosed by narrow alleyways (Greystoke Place and Mac's Place) to the north and east, with the former St Dunstan's churchyard to the south.

The structure comprises a broad two-storey podium and a set-back four-storey tower, with the top storey set back still further to form a penthouse. The external finish consists of 9¾ inch by 2 inch horizontally coursed white tiles, a clean mechanical alternative to the exposed brick and concrete surfaces typical of the 1950s and a signature feature of YRM's commercial work. The architects were determined to use the tiles uncut, with the dimensions of a standard tile fixing the proportions of the building as a whole. Similar tiles form projecting cills to the window openings.

Windows are double-glazed timber casements (now painted white) arranged in horizontal bands. Those on the north and south elevations have centrally-pivoting upper lights with integral blinds. On the south elevation they are arranged in two groups of three, creating a bipartite division in both podium and tower, with an additional single window to the right wrapping round the Mac's Place elevation as a continuous glazed strip. The penthouse windows above are tall horizontally-sliding sashes.

The original main entrance is on the north side from Greystoke Place, reached by an external flight of steps with green terrazzo treads and sheltered by a tile-clad concrete canopy. The stairwell above is lit by a series of horizontal slit windows. A new principal entrance with steps and canopy was installed around 2005 on the south side from the churchyard, replacing an earlier window. Black metal railings to the right of this entrance are original.

The principal internal feature is the stair, which is square on plan with the lift-shaft occupying the central well. Floating treads of green terrazzo are cantilevered out of a ranking concrete beam, with tubular steel handrails painted black. The uppermost flight leading to the penthouse flat has treads of yellow terrazzo. The lift shaft is glazed to the sides and rear with black-painted doors and metalwork.

The original layout comprised clerical and secretarial offices at ground level, two large drawing offices on the first and second floors, partners' offices on the third and fourth floors, and FRS Yorke's flat in the fifth-floor penthouse. In the present arrangement, the lower two floors remain as offices while the second through fifth floors are now flats. The ground and first floors are large open-plan spaces with smaller areas partitioned off as meeting rooms and kitchens; most internal features here are recent insertions. The ceilings are of exposed concrete with reinforcing beams supported on pilotis. The upper floors are now private flats and could not be inspected; the penthouse, built as FRS Yorke's own flat, may contain features of interest.

The building was designed to be seen across the enclosed green space of the former churchyard to the south. The churchyard's nineteenth-century iron railings and stock-brick plinth walls and gate-piers are important framing elements.